Iola head coach Mike Dougherty said his Iola A Indians “have exceeded all expectations.”
The American Legion baseball team is in Great Bend starting Wednesday for its state championship tournament.
In the July 16-17 Zone A tournament, Iola was able to secure back-to-back victories over Garnett and Chanute after falling in the first game to Chanute. Saturday’s win was a comeback which saw the Indians prevail, 5-3. Sunday’s sealing win was an impressive 8-1 rout.
Similar to the Iola AA American Legion team, Dougherty’s team has had to gel together because they come from four area high schools. His players are also primarily junior varsity players with minimal high school playing experience.
“The majority of our guys would fit in the 15 and under category. We’ve only got three guys that would play 16U,” said Dougherty. “We’re playing guys that don’t have much high school experience, most are getting ready to be sophomores, so we’re playing against guys who are a bit older and more mature.”
As far as improving not only as a team but also on their skill levels, Dougherty has been thrilled with how they respond to his feedback. The team is full of some “quality kids” who enjoy being on the baseball diamond and learning about the game.
“They’re extremely coachable,” Dougherty said. “It’s a really good bunch of gentlemen who are willing to do what we ask them to do and humble enough to do it without asking questions. They are willing to learn and let us teach them as we go along. They are just a high-quality, high- character bunch of kids.”
Practice makes perfect
Dougherty said the boys love being at the field for practice and working on their craft. Some even stay after until the sun goes down.
“If we have an hour-and-a-half of practice, some will stay two hours afterward to work on things on their own. We’ve got to kick them out when it gets dark. They’re a hard-working group of kids who know where they’re at and where they need to get to.”
With new territory comes a learning curve and that couldn’t be more true for Dougherty’s team who had to work on their game from the get-go. It doesn’t help when the other teams on the schedule are more experienced and have been playing together for a lot longer. However, Dougherty says his team has “exceeded all expectations.”
“I didn’t expect us to go this far,” considering the opposition.
“Several of those good teams were in our zone. I didn’t really expect that we would pull it off.”
Dougherty said his team’s defense has kicked it up a notch near the end of the season which helps his pitchers in limiting the run damage. That will be a point of emphasis when they take on other A American Legion teams in Great Bend this weekend.
“We’re not going to be able to make errors against good teams. Where we are probably a bit younger than everyone else we’re going to have to outperform expectations to be successful because we are playing against teams that are better than us.”
